1–The Lakers probably won’t face a tougher match-up in these playoffs than Oklahoma City, and I’ve got a feeling we’ll get a true sense of that today in their Game 1 against Utah.

Maybe Cleveland or Boston can test the Lakers in a similar ways to the Thunder. Maybe not.

But Utah, while a very strong and respectable playoff team, doesn’t have anybody like Kevin Durant, who wasn’t on fire against the Lakers but still caused them a lot of worry–and forced a ton of defensive rotating.

Advertisement

And Deron Williams is terrific, but he’s banged up and not quite the athletic marvel that Russell Westbrook is.

And I know Andrei Kirilenko might make it back for the middle of the series, but I doubt he’ll make it back in full force to guard Kobe Bryant, so then we’re talking some fairly uneven wing defenders to go up against No. 24.

And Fesenko/Koufos just aren’t going to hang in there for 5 or 6 minutes here or there against Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum (if he’s healthy) and Lamar Odom like they were against Denver’s up-and-down frontcourt.

And Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap had trouble against the Lakers’ length inside last year, and they will again this year.

And I think the Lakers were thrown off in the first two road games by that Oklahoma City crowd, very much like they were thrown off by the Arco Arena mayhem way back in 2000–that was Sac’s first taste of the big-time, just like this was the OKC playoff debut.

The Utah crowd is great, but the Lakers have been there and won there plenty of times in the playoffs.

This series, as opposed to the Thunder series which seems to have people thinking the Lakers are vulnerable, could be a Lakers landslide, if you ask me.

And the next one–against San Antonio or Phoenix–could be the same.

And the next one, too. And then there won’t be any more.

2–I expect a Detroit win tonight over the Sharks in Game 2… and maybe a dominant win.

I’m still picking the Sharks in 7 games. But I think this is a classic zig-zag game.

The Red Wings had every reason to be a step slow in Game 1, only two days after their exhausting 7-game series with Phoenix; now they got the extra day of rest and should come barrelling out for this one.

Advertisement

By the way, Detroit is an excellent, excellent team, full of scoring threats up and down their lines, and on their defense, too, and there’s no way the Sharks are getting anything like that 3-goals-in-a-blink explosion they got in Game 1.

How about two goals for Zetterberg, one piece for Datsyuk and Franzen? Something like 5-3 Detroit, heading to Joe Louis Arena tied 1-1 in the series.

Unless my guy Patrick Marleau rises up from the fever/flu and gets that playoff hat trick tonight–we all know it’s in him.

(If they lose tonight, yes, I expect the Sharks to zig-zag right back and get at least one of the two games in Detroit.)

That’s how Floyd has done it in recent years–he’ll give up a clean shot here or there in the early rounds, as he’s measuring and feeling out the angles, and he did to Shane in Round 2.

But not only does Floyd rarely get hit clean, when he does, he doesn’t go down. That’s almost unheard of in boxing: A supreme defensive fighter who also has a great chin.

Then, once he figures out how he can win and where he has to stand to do it, Mayweather takes over the fight and once he does that, it never turns back.

This time, Mayweather stood in front and traded with Mosley more than Floyd has done in the past, because Floyd seemed to want to give fans more action and surely because Floyd figured out by the middle rounds that Mosley was not going to hurt him.

I feel for Mosley, who I covered a ton when I was the LA Times boxing writer years ago. Great guy. Super-fast hands. Always climbing up, climbing up, but just short of real stardom.

He ran into real superstardom–and faster hands–last night in Mayweather, a fighter who could’ve hung in there against any of the all-time greats.

Shane is not an all-time great. Shane’s had a great career. It should be over now.

How does this set up Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao? I think if they ever make that fight, which I expect either for this November or next May, Pacquiao is going to land a few on Mayweather.

If Mosley can land a few thudders, you know Pacquiao can find the range at some point early. And when Pacquiao lands one, he usually lands 8 or 10 in a 60-second sequence.

Tim Kawakami

Post navigation

Tim, just come out and say you are against Patty Marleu- you hate this guy and want him out of the bay area. Just stick to basketball and stay the “bleep” away from the sharks.

Hi

Mayweather will not let Pacquiao land 6 or 7 punches in a sequence. Pacquiao has never fought a fighter as good as Floyd, and the same can be said for Floyd. I’ll take the fighter with the most smarts, speed, and defense, and that’s Floyd Mayweather. I can’t wait for this fight to happen, and it NEEDS to happen.

Jeff

We all know that Mayweather wil not let the fight happen because he is scared of pacman. He will throw in some rules that he knows manny will not agree to and leave it at that.

Rico

It’s obvious you know nothing about hockey. I realize that you have no shame, but to attempt to maintain some credibility you really need to stop writing about hockey. This isn’t about “oh, I’m not from Canada so I’m not allowed to talk about hockey?” It’s about knowledge of the sport you’re writing about. It would be like me blogging about Astrophysics because I read an entry in Wikipedia. You didn’t write anything about hockey all season until the playoffs start and then all of a sudden you are an expert after watching a game and then listening to Barry Melrose.

Stick to what you know, and it’s obvious to even the casual observer you know nothing about hockey.

Stan…

There’s always Tom Tolbert to break down the hockey game for me. It’s who I rely on.
What are you laughing about?

Grey Warden

I don’t think the Lakers will steamroll through the competition like u say they will TK. They’ll probably reach the finals, but won’t be as easy a road as u say.

As for Mosley, he gassed himself out trying to finish the fight in the early rounds. He had nothing left in the tank in the final rounds.

As for Pacquiao, just agree to the urine/drug test and get on with it. Unless he’s trying to hide something…

shooter

im surprised your looking past san antonio tim. they will give LA a real run for the money in the conference finals.
so they had an average year but they still won 50 games, and they surely have the most total rings out of any team.

they have a great leader, and 3 stars.
some say tim duncan has lost a step but even if hes not scoring he changes the game and certainly is one of the best possible matchups for gasol.

they have a rising star in hill, and along with him, jefferson, and keith bogans, and sometimes ginnobili, they have plenty of defenders to throw at kobe.

and my final point, some will disagree and point to jacksons 10 rings, but i believe the spurs have the best coach in the nba.

i picked a spurs lakers Conf finals in the beginning with the lakeshow winning it in 7

http://variousprovocations.blogspot.com dth

San Antonio, as shooter says, matches up well with the Lakers, though I think the Spurs will beat them if they face each other. The Lakers can’t hide Derek Fisher on anyone; he’ll either be passed by Hill or Parker or Ginobili or posted by Jefferson. If Fisher can turn the Russell Westbrook into a 55% shooter through the first four games (he was 41% in the regular season), then what’s going to happen when Fisher has to defend superior offensive players like the aforementioned? The Spurs have the defense to befuddle an oftentimes mediocre Laker offense; they have the experience; they have the coaching.

And they just don’t have the firepower to stick with the Cavs or Magic, should the Lakers even make it that far. The respect to a pretty good but not great edition of the Lakers is pretty odd; they’re not going to be the champs.

Mano de Nada

Yes sorry still a very beatable Lakers squad; SAS, BOS, CLE, ORL are all capable…

And Fisher’s not the only weak spot either.

Rev Run TMC

Tim, please keep writing about hockey, if for no other reason than to piss off these self-righteous blowhards.

The Leftovers from Tom Cable’s Lunchbox

“How does this set up Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao? ”

Come on…

The fight everyone wants to see is Pacquiao versus Tom Cable.

If Manny can make the weight. Everyone wants to see them get down in Oaktown.

Why did Mayweather duck Pacquiao? Probably to get in shape by mopping up on has-been Mosley. Mayweather is afraid of Pacquiao.

JD

heck yea. mayweather is a pussy. he is fast but the reason he picks his punches is because he is weak. notice how it took him so many rounds to take out hatton as opposed to pacquiao? pacquiao is just as fast, but stronger. he’ll beat the crap out of mayweather and mayweather is just afraid to fight, hence his bs rules. pacquiao doesnt have to prove anything to mayweather since mayweather didnt invent the sport and mayweather’s name is not ali.

alan t.

I think Pacquiao is avoiding blood tests because he’s even more pumped with HGH and some other funky stuff than Evander Holyfield was. And is. Or, at the very least, he’s comparable to Holyfield in that regard. Those two are great fighters that greatly benefited from the miracles of modern chemistry to rise in weight classes.

A’s in 2010

Mayweather is waiting for PacMan to turn 40 just like everyone else he fights.

Marco

If you don’t want Kawakami on hockey or Tolbert on hockey what about the Razor as your hockey expert? He says their management team is good and when he goes to games everyone treats him so nicely. He says something good is now due to happen to the Sharkies.

Jacinto

that Pac man bs was just that. Pac will never agree to the drug test because he is juiced up. If this fight doesn’t happen it will be because Ped-man balks! We all know he is juiced

Gofornot

What is so hard to agreing to a drug test? Unless you’re hiding something.

Things Are All Right

Pacquiao takes random drug tests like every other fighter. Mayweather was just trying to play mind games by insisting on an unusual blood test thirty days before the fight. If their promoters can ever agree this will be one of the best fights in the last 20 years. I can’t wait. I think it’s Pacquiao on points.

Aaron

Mayweather’s a punk. Go ahead and fight Pac Man. Guy just doesn’t want to take a fight that can ruin his perfect record.

It made me sick to see those two smile and hug after the 12th. Purely for the money.

TCM66

Mayweather is Pernell Whitaker 2.0. The question of whether Pac can stay with him is whether he as a smaller man can win.

robert rowell

what was up with those fur striped trunks that money was wearing? judges shoudda taken away a few points for that.

it was a boring fight, but money did dominate. money v. pac will be great.

MikeM

The Spurs are the Lakers biggest nightmare for this playoffs. Almost every matchup you can think of favors the Spurs.

I still think the Lakers would win this series, but they should be grateful for home-court. The deal with the West is that all 8 teams were so evenly matched that if you re-shuffled the teams and replayed the first round, you could easily come out with 4 different survivors.

I sure am envious of OKC, though. They’re set for the better part of a decade now. I hope the fans there appreciate what they have.